As much as people shit on Kinect... the amount of cool things people have done with the device outside of video games says a lot I think.

Yeah, it mainly says: 'MS, stop selling and advertising Kinect as a gaming device!'

As much as people shit on Kinect... the amount of cool things people have done with the device outside of video games says a lot I think.

As much as people shit on Kinect... the amount of cool things people have done with the device outside of video games says a lot I think.

That's it doesn't belong in gaming? I think we all know that.

Dayum, latest 720 specs revealed :O
http://pastebin.com/CiKCVeiA

I don't get hung up on specs at all, as last gen has taught me that they are not the main factor, but dev tools and dev support are, games will end up looking the same with first party devs using they own consoles strength to maximise the look and feel of their games, for me personally I will wait as I always do for a certain game to come out that compels me to buy either new console.

Dayum, latest 720 specs revealed :O
http://pastebin.com/CiKCVeiA

13.
Microsoft are clearly being very cautious on it's dev boxes/servers and its sdk's, there are daily check ups from the MS guys ensuring the boxes are not tampered with. Also the lockdown of our development offices is insane, its like those Intel adverts where the scientist is wearing a blue overall suite and they go into a sealed room with only what there wearing. It's the same for us, our development offices are closed off and in the last 3 months the number of security cards have pretty much tripled. Lots of security for us coders, but its also very exciting.


It's clear from my use of the sdk and the development environment that MS are definitely on track, they have a brilliant developer story that I know other developers will fall in love with once its public.


One last thing, my fellow game developer colleagues have pretty much said that they believe the Xbox is severely more powerful than the PS4, they were very surprised with just how much.. They've spent a great deal of effort reducing certain game textures/animations and the engine in general just to get a decent 60fps on the PS4. Clearly in their eyes the Xbox is leaps and bounds ahead of the PS4.


Can't wait for you all to see our game and apps hopefully on reveal day, but definetely at launch!

To confirm / deny rumours:

Must have kinect to work (true, kinect is integrated across the system, but hand tracking means it can offer a touch screen-like experience on your TV)

Always online. (false, the system is ALWAYS CONNECTED, just like PS4 it does a lot of stuff in the background - if you don't connect to the net you can play game but the console isn't worthwhile - a lot of the experience will be about being connected)

Tiered pricing and subscription based subsidy (True)

The system will now come with 12GB of GDDR3 memory (True - this won't make a huge difference to performance in the short term, but it is cheap and gives microsoft one of the few areas where Durango can claim a victory of sorts. The logic is that the average joe will believe more memory is better. Why not? The PC market has been teaching him this for years)

Anti Used Games. (True. They have a system and it works. Time will tell if they decide to implement it though.)

Windows 8 (True. The dashboard is Metro in style, but closer to Windows Phone 8 than the desltop version in style and function. All games will have a live tile tracking stats, friends, etc)

Xbox 360 SOC (True. MS will be pushing this HEAVILY as Sony dont have it. One of the key messages on May 21 will be that your entire library is coming with you to next gen. The kicker though? Durango upscales 360 games to 1080p output. Again this is one of the few areas MS can claim a lead over Sony and they will push this a lot)

Chief will be in attendance at Launch. Possibly saved for E3, but Microsofts biggest games will not miss launch when they are going head to head with Sony. While not quite an original story, you'll play various missions from the Chief's career before Halo 1 in a squad based co op shooter. Think Halo x Borderlands in many ways - the character creation and upgrade system from Halo 4 is being carried over but will be pat of the campaign). Think spartan ops on steroids.

At this point it could go either way - MS are down to the wire on everything. The system and key games could slip - there's some very tired engineers at Xbox Campus. Pay very close attention on the 21st - the slight of hand could be just as big as Sony in 2005 if things not gelled).

13.
Microsoft are clearly being very cautious on it's dev boxes/servers and its sdk's, there are daily check ups from the MS guys ensuring the boxes are not tampered with. Also the lockdown of our development offices is insane, its like those Intel adverts where the scientist is wearing a blue overall suite and they go into a sealed room with only what there wearing. It's the same for us, our development offices are closed off and in the last 3 months the number of security cards have pretty much tripled. Lots of security for us coders, but its also very exciting.


It's clear from my use of the sdk and the development environment that MS are definitely on track, they have a brilliant developer story that I know other developers will fall in love with once its public.


One last thing, my fellow game developer colleagues have pretty much said that they believe the Xbox is severely more powerful than the PS4, they were very surprised with just how much.. They've spent a great deal of effort reducing certain game textures/animations and the engine in general just to get a decent 60fps on the PS4. Clearly in their eyes the Xbox is leaps and bounds ahead of the PS4.


Can't wait for you all to see our game and apps hopefully on reveal day, but definetely at launch!

In the case of the brush-strokes of the Durango and Orbis specs, not only do we have double-sourced information of our own, but we also have an extra form of backup in the form of these other leaks. Therefore, our belief is that the specs we are discussing are not only accurate, but very, very close - if not identical - to the make-up of the final hardware.